Predicting the environmental impacts of chicken systems in the United Kingdom through a life cycle assessment: Egg production systems

Abstract

The aim of this study was to apply a life cycle assessment (LCA) method, from cradle to gate, to quantify the environmental burdens per 1,000 kg of eggs produced in the 4 major hen-egg production systems in the United Kingdom: 1) cage, 2) barn, 3) free range, and 4) organic. The analysis was based on an approach that applied a structural model for the industry and mechanistic submodels for animal performance, crop production, and nutrient flows. Baseline feeds representative of those used by the UK egg production industry were used. Typical figures from the UK egg production industry, feed intake, mortality of birds, farm energy, and material use in different systems were applied. Monte Carlo simulations were used to quantify the uncertainties in the outputs and allow for comparisons between the systems. The number of birds required to produce 1,000 kg of eggs was highest in the organic and lowest in the cage system; similarly, the amount of feed consumed per bird was highest in the organic and lowest in the cage system. These general differences in productivity largely affected the differences in the environmental impacts between the systems. Feed production, processing, and transport caused greater impacts compared with those from any other component of production; that is, 54 to 75% of the primary energy use and 64 to 72% of the global warming potential of the systems. Electricity (used mainly for ventilation, automatic feeding, and lighting) had the second greatest impact in primary energy use (16-38%). Gas and oil (used mainly for heating in pullet rearing and incineration of dead layer birds) used 7 to 14% of the total primary energy. Manure had the greatest impact on the acidification and eutrophication potentials of the systems because of ammonia emissions that contributed to both of these potentials and nitrate leaching that only affected eutrophication potential. The LCA method allows for comparisons between systems and for the identification of hotspots of environmental impacts that could be subject to mitigation.

How can we improve the environmental sustainability of poultry production?

“…So far, the most extensive LCA study aiming to quantify the environmental impacts of UK chicken production systems has been carried out in a Defra LINK-funded project Poultry LCA (12)(13)(14)(15) . This project applied the systems-based LCA model together with detailed production data from poultry industry, and quantified the baseline level of environmental impacts of the main UK broiler and egg production systems.…”

“…The LCA studies of poultry production presented in this review are mainly based on a systems modelling approach. This includes structural models of the industry and process based simulation models that are unified in a systems approach which handles possible interactions between separate subsystems (5,(10)(11)(12)(13) . In this approach, a structural model for a poultry production system calculates all the inputs required to produce a specific functional unit (e.g.…”

Sustainability of livestock production systems : a comparing conventional and organic livestock husbandry

“…compared an organic and conventional system in Czech Republic. Results by Leinonen and Kyriazakis (2013) are explained in detail by Leinonen et al (2012b). On average, organic systems resulted in a higher environmental impact per unit product than conventional systems in case of all impact categories, except for global warming.…”

“…AP, EP and land use per unit of product were consistently higher for organic systems compared with conventional systems in all three studies. A higher feed consumption per kg of eggs and a lower crop yield per ha in organic systems explained the main part of the differences (Leinonen et al, 2012b).…”

Design and Application of Intelligent Monitoring System for Laminated Henhouse with Six Overlap Tiers Cages

“…And the measuring points are too less to reflect the whole henhouse environment. It is unable to realize convenient and real-time online monitoring [1][2][3][4].…”